Ed “Mac” McNeil Passed

Ed McNeil2Last Sunday, February 8th, long time North Forker Ed “Mac” McNeil passed away. Mac and his wife Cecily bought land near Dutch Creek in Glacier National Park in the early 60s.   They later bought 103 acres and built a cabin on the other side of the river near Moose Creek and lived there during the summers.

Mac and Cecily were early members of the North Fork Improvement Association which turned into the North Fork Landowners Association of today. They also worked to get a zoning petition and helped to found the North Fork Compact in 1973 in an effort to save the North Fork from development.

North Forkers have fond memories of events and square dances with Mac McNeil, Cecily, and their two sons Alan and Bruce. Mac will be missed.

If you are interested in hearing more about the North Fork from Mac and Cecily, there are audio interviews with them both on the North Fork History Project web page. You can get to that by clicking here.

There is also an excellent obituary provided by the Daily Inter Lake.

 

North Fork History Project has some new interviews

The North Fork History Project members were busy this summer interviewing more folks from the North Fork.  Here’s what’s new:

  • Esther Chrisman – Esther was born in Illinois in 1927 to parents who were immigrants from Norway.  She met her husband, Baird, in college and they were married in 1948.  They started traveling west together to visit the Rockies.  They visited their friends, Orville and Helen Foreman, who had purchased the Petersen homestead in 1948.  Esther and Baird camped at Avalanche Lake and did lots of hiking in Glacier Park.  They bought the Bart Monahan homestead in 1958 when their son Allen was three months old.  They knew many of the original homesteaders.
  • Bud & April Evans – Bud and April’s parents, Frank and Edna Evans, bought the Panorama Ranch near Polebridge from Bill Adair in 1946.  As children, Bud and April spent their summers in the North Fork and winters in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  Frank had come from Illinois to work as a naturalist for Glacier National Park.  He started a hiking concession in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  Edna came to Montana to work as a nurse in his business.  They fell in love and married.  The Panorama Ranch later became headquarters for their hiking trips in the Park.
  • Naomi Hoiland – Naomi was born in a log cabin in 1935 on Half Moon Lake near Belton.  She first came to the North Fork when she was four years old and started school a year later at the Ford schoolhouse.  She has fond memories from that time.  She was raised by her grandparents, Ruth and Bert Conn and they lived near the Holcolms.  Her Grampa Bert worked seasonally for the Forest Service as a smoke chaser, lookout, and on the trail crew.   She knew many of the original homesteaders.

You can get access to these interviews on the North Fork History Project page under Oral History Interviews.  Our many thanks to Debo Powers, Tom Edwards, and Karen McDonough for conducting these interviews and to Debo for writing up the summaries.  And of course our sincere thanks to Esther Chrisman, Bud & April Evans, and Naomi Hoiland for agreeing to share their early North Fork memories with all of us.

Polebridge school investigated

Alexander James Kroll selected an interesting historical topic for his Bachelor’s of Arts in Anthropology thesis at the University of Montana… the Polebridge schoolhouse. Alex says that this is the very first schoolhouse that was archaeologically investigated in the state of Montana and only the 5th to be looked out in the West. You not only learn about the Polebridge schoolhouse, but also the historical context and all about rural education.

You can download a copy of Alex’s thesis from here, but be warned that it’s 178MB so could take awhile and a lot of FAP.

Don’t forget that you can get access to Alex’s thesis and biographical information as well as other historical interviews and North Fork stories on the North Fork History Project’s web page. Check it out.